http://io9.com/5934884/rip-harry-harrison-creator-of-the-stainless-steel-rat-bill-the-galactic-hero-and-soylent-green%E2%80%8E R.I.P. Harry Harrison, creator of the Stainless Steel Rat, Bill the Galactic Hero, and Soylent Green Charlie Jane Anders If Harry Harrison had only created "Slippery" Jim DiGriz, the roguish hero of the Stainless Steel Rat books, he would deserve a high place in science fiction history. But he also wrote dozens of other novels, including the hilarious Bill the Galactic Hero saga, the proto-Steampunk classic A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!, and the novel that became the movie Soylent Green, Make Room! Make Room!. Amazingly, Harrison kept writing great novels, with the last Stainless Steel Rat book coming out just two years ago. He died today, aged 87, according to his official website. No details are yet known. Top image: Cover of The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted, artwork by Jim Burns. Full size There are few really great comic space opera novels, aside from Douglas Adams. And Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books qualify —

Jim DiGriz is a really inspired creation, a rogue smuggler created years before Han Solo existed. Even as "Slippery" Jim sort of goes straight in the later books, he never stops being a source of ridiculous fun, and his romance with the equally criminal and devious Angelina is a really sweet, heartfelt relationship. I read the Stainless Steel Rat books at a very impressionable age, and a lot of clever bits stick in my mind — like the bit where "Slippery" Jim explains that intergalactic empires are impossible due to the problems with travel at relativistic speeds. This series was always smarter than a lot of other space operas, even alongside its gratifying levels of silliness. He achieves a very different sort of humor, parodying bad science fiction, in the Bill the Galactic Hero books. And meanwhile, Harrison also wrote one of the most influential future dystopias, a book about an overcrowded starving future facing huge environmental disasters. The movie version focused heavily on the eponymous "soylent green" storyline, but the actual novel Make Room! Make Room! is much more concerned with portraying the full horror of an overgrown future "megalopolis" of New York, crammed with 35 million people living in intense heat and drinking dirty brown water.

Reading Harrison's decidedly unfunny prose in Make Room, you can feel the heat of the city streets and the grime under your fingernails. Everybody who's writing or reading future dystopias today owes a huge debt to Harrison for proving just how grim and visceral a future nightmare could be. And long before steampunk was considered a whole book genre, Harrison was writing Victorian alternate history with fantastical technologies in Transatlantic Tunnel, a book that's just starting to be rediscovered thanks to a nifty new edition. Full size Harrison was also a prolific artist, who worked in comics as an artist and writer in the 1940s, working with such greats as Wally Wood and Jules Feiffer. He helped to pioneer the science fiction anthology comic, with a title called Weird Science. Harrison told Locus his books often have a pacifistic theme, in part thanks to his own experiences in the military: Over time the [Stainless Steel] Rat grew up, and got very pacifistic. In the first book he killed one person, but no one else dies in the whole damn series. It was the anti-Jerry Pournelle and Jim Baen kind of story, where it's 'Kill! Kill! Kill!' Bill, the Galactic Hero was my first book of that sort. I'd been in the army and hated it. Though almost all my books are anti-military, anti-war (the Deathworld series very much so), I try not to repeat myself. After the Stainless Steel Rat book that was published in 2010, Harrison was working on another new book, which he described as "a big secret." But we're not sure whether he finished it or not.

In any case, he left behind an amazing body of work, and he was still creating right up until the end, which is in itself a fantastic achievement. [via Jonathan Strahan] Ron Palillo, best known as mouthy classroom goofball Arnold Horshack on the 1970s TV series Welcome Back, Kotter, has died, according to Greg Hauptner, founder and CEO of G-Star Academy, the Palm Springs charter school where the actor taught classes in 2009. Palillo was 63. According to friends, Palillo died at his Palm Beach Gardens home at 4:30 this morning. Before being hired by G-Star in 2009, Palillo had lectured in colleges and high schools all over the country for years and isn’t worried. “From the moment I heard about G-Star seven, eight years ago, it sounded like everything I wanted as a student when I went to high school,” Palillo said in 2009. “To have this when I was a kid would’ve been astonishing and I knew I wanted to be part of it.” Palillo is a University of Connecticut graduate who taught entry-level acting at G-Star. Palillo played Horshack on the popular show Welcome Back Kotter that also starred a young John Travolta. Palillo had said he loved Palm Beach County, having served as artistic director for the Cuillo Center for the Arts where he directed and acted in A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline and The Phantom of the Opera. “I’ve always felt very at home here,” Palillo said in 2009. “People go out of their way for you in West Palm Beach. They don’t do that in New York.” http://www.wptv.com/dpp/entertainment/ron-palillo-arnold-horshack-on-welcome-back-kotter-dies-at-age-63#ixzz23XGYfhMK She played Ma Kent in the 1978 superhero film after appearing years earlier in such classics as “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” and “Act of Violence.”

Phyllis Thaxter, the wholesome actress who played Ma Kent in 1978’s Superman and the faithful girlfriend to vengeful POW Robert Ryan in the 1948 film noir classic Act of Violence, has died. She was 90. Related Topics •ObituariesThaxter died Tuesday at her home in Florida after a long bout with Alzheimer's, according to her daughter, actress Skye Aubrey. A contract player at MGM and Warner Bros. in the 1940s and ’50s before her career was derailed by illness, Thaxter also starred in the psychological thriller Bewitched (1945), playing opposite Edmund Gwenn as a woman fighting to hold off a conniving, murderous alter ego. “She was one of the most beautiful and patrician icons of the golden age of movies, TV and theater,” veteran movie critic Rex Reed told The Hollywood Reporter. After playing on Broadway in such productions as Claudia and There Shall Be No Night -- the latter starring Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Sydney Greenstreet and Montgomery Clift -- Thaxter, the daughter of a Maine state Supreme Court justice, attracted the attention of Hollywood and signed with MGM in the early '40s. Her film debut came in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) as the wife of Van Johnson, and a year later, she starred in Bewitched and then appeared in Week-End at the Waldorf, a remake of the Greta Garbo classic Grand Hotel.

The hazel-eyed brunette followed with The Sea of Grass (1947) opposite Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn; Tenth Avenue Angel (1948) with Margaret O’Brien; Blood on the Moon, a Western with Robert Mitchum; and Fred Zinneman’s taut Act of Violence (1948), as the woman who stands by Ryan, an embittered POW out for revenge against his former war buddy Van Heflin. Thaxter then joined Warner Bros. and appeared in such films as Michael Curtiz' sThe Breaking Point (1950) with John Garfield and Patricia Neal; Come Fill the Cup (1951) with Gig Young; Springfield Rifle with Gary Cooper; another Curtiz film, Jim Thorpe — All-American (1951), with Burt Lancaster; and She’s Working Her Way Through College (1952) with Ronald Reagan. However, she contracted a form of infantile paralysis while visiting her family in Portland, Maine, and her contract was terminated. That led her to television, where she appeared in guest-starring roles in Lux Video Theatre, Climax!, Wagon Train, Rawhide, The Defenders, Medical Center, Marcus Welby, M.D. and many other series. In 1978, Thaxter made one final movie splash when she was cast along with Glenn Ford as Clark Kent’s adoptive parents on Earth in Richard Donner’s Superman, starring Christopher Reeve. Her daughter Skye was married to Superman executive producer Iiya Salkind. “I worked harder on that film than anything I’d done — I couldn’t be bad,” Thaxter once said. The actress spent the 1980s on the stage in such productions as The Little Foxes with Anne Baxter and The Gin Game with Larry Gates. In 1944, Thaxter married

James Aubrey Jr., who was president of CBS in the early 1960s and then was hired by Kirk Kerkorian to preside over MGM during a brutal budget-slashing period in the '70s. They divorced in 1962 (he died in 1994). Thaxter then wed former Princeton football star Gilbert Lea, a mariage that lasted for 46 years until his death in May 2008. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/actress-phyllis-thaxter-dies-superman-mother-362757

Comics Legend Joe Kubert Dead At 85 Posted by Henchman21 | August 12th, 2012 at 6:40 pm Comics legend Joe Kubert, who was one of the most important artists and writers in comics history, helping to create Sgt. Rock for DC comics, as well as working for long periods on Hawkman, Tarzan, and many other books, has passed away today at the age of 85. Later in his career, Kubert worked on a number of non-fiction works, such as Fax from Sarajevo, Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965, and more personal works such as Jew Gangster and Yossel. Kubert still remained active in the comics field, providing inks for his sons Adam and Andy’s comics work. Kubert was born September 18, 1926 in southeast Poland. His family emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, when he was two months old. Kubert began working in comics at a very early age, and went on to attend Manhattan’s High School of Music and Art. From there, he began work at many different companies during the early days of the industry, before reaching DC where he had his greatest success in the 50’s and 60’s. In 1976, Kubert opened the Kubert School in Dover, New Jersey. The Kubert School has gone on to train several generations of comic professionals, including Dave Dorman, Scott Kolins, Rags Morales, Alex Maleev, Rick Veitch, and many, many more. The Kubert Schools most famous graduates are of course Joe’s two sons, Adam and Andy Kubert, who have both gone on to have successful careers of their own. The news of Kubert’s passing was posted today on Twitter by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons, as well as many others in the comics industry. This is a huge loss to the comics community and we all wish to share our condolences with the entire Kubert family. There is no way he can be replaced, but he will live on in the work he gave us as well as the lessons he passed on to others. RIP Joe Kubert September 18, 1926 – August 12, 2012 http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/08/12/comics-legend-joe-kubert-dead-at-85/ Helen Gurley Brown, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazines' 64 international editions and one of the world's most popular and influential editors, died today at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. She was 90. The Hearst Corporation announced her death Monday afternoon. Widely heralded as a legend, Gurley Brown's impact on popular culture and society reached around the globe, first with her 1962 bestseller, Sex and the Single Girl, and then for the more than three decades she put her personal stamp on Cosmopolitan in a way rarely replicated by editors. Under her reign, Cosmopolitan became the bible of "single girls" worldwide and remains the magazine of "fun, fearless, females" to this day. "Helen Gurley Brown was an icon. Her formula for honest and straightforward advice about relationships, career and beauty revolutionized the magazine industry," said Frank A. Bennack, Jr., CEO of Hearst Corporation. "She lived every day of her life to the fullest and will always be remembered as the quintessential 'Cosmo girl.' She will be greatly missed." "Helen was an inspiration, a true success story. Her energy, enthusiasm and true passion for women's issues unleashed a platform for women worldwide," said David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines. "She brought the subject that every woman wanted to know about but nobody talked about, to life, literally, in Cosmo's pages." Her and her husband David Brown's philanthropy also left an indelible mark on journalism: In January, Gurley Brown gave $30 million to Columbia and Stanford Universities. The gift created the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation, housed at both Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism and the School of Engineering at Stanford. The center represents the "increasingly important connection between journalism and technology, bringing the best from the East and West Coasts," both schools announced. The journalism school said its $18 million share was the largest donation in its 100-year history. Gurley Brown's husband, David, who died in 2010, attended both universities and was a movie producer whose films included Jaws, The Sting and The Verdict. She also gave the papers, notes, and correspondence that document her career—and publishing in the late 20th century—to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. The woman who redefined womanhood for many coming of age at that time, was born in Green Forest, Ark., on February 18, 1922, to Ira and Cleo Gurley, both school teachers. The family moved to Little Rock when Ira was elected to the state legislature. He died in an elevator accident when Helen was 10 years old. After trying to support Helen and her older sister Mary in Depression-era Arkansas, Cleo Gurley moved them to Los Angeles in the late 1930s. There, Gurley Brown excelled socially and academically, graduating from high school as class valedictorian. She spent a year at the Texas State College for Women and returned home to put herself through Woodbury Business College. Her mother and sister, who had contracted polio, depended on her financial support for the rest of their lives. In 1941, with her business degree, Gurley Brown took on a series of secretarial jobs. She was later to urge her readers to plan their financial lives wisely, writing "Being smart about money is sexy." A careful spender her whole life, she was said to bring her lunch to work almost every day for the more than 30 years she spent at Hearst. It was her 17th job, at the advertising agency Foote, Cone, and Belding, that launched her future success. As executive secretary to Don Belding, Gurley Brown's work ethic and witty notes impressed both her boss and his wife, who suggested she try her hand at writing advertising copy. She proved her talent, winning prizes for her copy. By the late 1950s, she had become the highest-paid female copywriter on the West Coast and one of the few to be listed in Who's Who of American Women. (She is also recognized in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in The World, and the World Book of Facts.) In 1959, at the age of 37, Gurley Brown married Brown, 43, then a film executive at 20th Century Fox Studios, and later an independent producer. During their marriage, Brown was a partner behind many of Gurley Brown's projects, even writing Cosmo cover lines. It was he who persuaded her to write a book about her life as a single woman. The result, Sex and the Single Girl (1962), took the nation—and then globe—by storm. On the bestseller lists for more than a year, Sex and the Single Girl has been published in 28 countries and translated into 16 languages. The book encouraged young women to enjoy being single, find fulfillment in work and non-marital relationships with men, and take pleasure in sex. When Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique ushered in the modern women's movement a year later, the two works and their authors helped lead the growing national dialogue about the place of women in society and popular culture. Quick on the stiletto heels of her first success, Gurley Brown wrote the 1964 bestseller, Sex and the Office. Warner Bros. bought the film rights to Sex and the Single Girl for what was then the highest price ever paid for a non-fiction title. The 1964 film starred Natalie Wood, Tony Curtis, Lauren Bacall and Henry Fonda. The Browns then worked together to keep Helen in the public eye. She wrote a syndicated newspaper advice column and made record albums and radio spots. The pair pitched plays, television shows, more books, and new magazines for single women. One, a magazine called Femme, attracted the interest of Hearst Magazines. But instead of a new title, they agreed to let her try to revive Cosmopolitan magazine. In July 1965, Gurley Brown, the woman who famously said, "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere," officially became editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and launched it into publishing history. She was Cosmo's tireless editor-in-chief, growing the magazine in the 1980s to 300 pages, a third of which were highly lucrative advertisements. Since then, its sales and advertising have risen spectacularly. Today Cosmopolitan is the top-selling young women's magazines in the world, with 64 international editions and is published in 35 languages and distributed in more than 100 countries. In 1997, Gurley Brown left the flagship magazine to be editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan's growing international editions. Gurley Brown's vision—and spectacular success—was to remodel the then-conservative Cosmopolitan. She once said she accomplished this because, "My success was not based so much on any great intelligence but on great common sense." She featured sexy cover models, provocative content, and a fresh point of view that appealed to young women. She was a highly visible magazine editor and personality, authoring The Single Girl's Cookbook (1969) and Sex and the New Single Girl (1971), an updated version of her first book, and making TV show guest appearances. At one point, she was said to be so popular that she was the 10th-most-frequent guest on "The Tonight Show." In the 1980s, she had a weekly spot on Good Morning America and briefly hosted her own show, A View From Cosmo, on Lifetime. She and Brown, who were married for 51 years, were anchors in the New York publishing and Hollywood film communities, as he and partner Richard Zanuck produced some of the era's most memorable movies, among them, Cocoon and Driving Miss Daisy. When asked by an interviewer in 2006 to what she attributed her long, happy marriage, Gurley Brown answered, "I married the right man. He is kind, compassionate and generous, not just to me, but to a lot of other people. You need to marry a decent, caring person." Named one of the 25 Most Influential Women in the U.S. five times by The World Almanac, Gurley Brown continued to write books, some 11 in all. They include The Outrageous Opinions of Helen Gurley Brown (1967); the 1982 bestseller, Having It All; The Late Show: A Semiwild but Practical Survival Plan for Women over 50 (1993); and a writing guide, The Writer's Rules: The Power of Positive Prose—How to Create It and Get It Published (1988). Her definitive memoir, I'm Wild Again: Snippets From My Life and a Few Brazen Thoughts, was published in 2000. A biography of Gurley Brown, Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown, by Jennifer Scanlon, was published in 2009. Just recently, Advertising Age named her among 100 women who have made an impact on advertising during the past century. For her exemplary contributions to magazine journalism, Gurley Brown was awarded a Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications in 1985. In 1986, the Hearst Corporation established a chair at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in her name, the Helen Gurley Brown Research Professorship. She was inducted into the Publisher's Hall of Fame in 1988, taking her place with such publishing originals as Henry Luce, DeWitt Wallace, Harold Ross, and Norman Cousins. The Magazine Publishers of America honored Helen Gurley Brown with the 1995 Henry Johnson Fisher Award, the magazine publishing industry's highest honor. Gurley Brown was the first woman recipient. She received the 1996 American Society of Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame Award. When asked in 2006 about the social firestorm called Sex and the Single Girl that ignited her long, iconic editorial career, Gurley Brown explained, "Before I wrote my book, the thought was that sex was for men and women only caved in to please men. But I wrote what I knew to be true—that sex is pleasurable for both women and men." Donations may be made to The Pussycat Foundation, c/o Karen Sanborn, Hearst Corp., 300 W. 57th Street, New York, NY 10019, to fund media innovation at Columbia and Stanford Universities. A fall memorial will be announced at a later date. http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Legendary-editor-Helen-Gurley-Brown-dies-3784845.php

TV director Russ Mayberry, who helmed episodes of "That Girl," "The Brady Bunch," "Ironside," "McCloud," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "Kojak," "Magnum, P.I." and "In the Heat of the Night," among many other series, during his 46-year career in the industry, died July 27 in Fort Collins, Colo., after brief illness. He was 86. Mayberry was a busy director of series television beginning in 1967 with episodes of "The Flying Nun" and "The Monkees," among others. He also helmed episodes of "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie" in the late 1960s. Mayberry mostly directed sitcoms in the first few years of his helming career -- work on Western "The Virginian" was an exception -- but he soon transitioned into directing dramas, including "Baretta," "The Six Million Dollar Man," "Harry O" and "Black Sheep Squadron" (an episode of which he also produced). During the late '70s and early '80s Mayberry directed a series of telepics including "The 3,000 Mile Chase," "The Million Dollar Dixie Deliverance," "Marriage Is Alive and Well" and "Side by Side: The True Story of the Osmond Family." Series direct ing credits during the 1980s include "The Fall Guy," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "The Equalizer," "Jake and the Fatman." He directed several episodes of "Matlock" in the early '90s.Russell B. Mayberry was born in Duluth, Minn. After serving as a naval aviator in WWII, he attended Northwestern U. in Chicago. Mayberry started out in the TV business as a stage hand at WBKB in Chicago, and his career took him to Memphis and New York, back to Chicago and then to California. Survivors include Mayberry's wife, Sandy; a son; a daughter; two grandchildren; and a brother. A remembrance gathering will be held on Monday, Aug. 6, at 11 a.m. at the Allnutt Drake Reception Center, 650 W. Drake Road, Fort Collins, Colo. Donations may be made to Directors Guild of America Foundation, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046 or Waikiki Aquarium, Honolulu, Hawaii. Please visit Allnutt.com to view Mayberry's online obituary, sign the family guest book and send condolences. Link ... http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118057276?refCatId=14 Jimmy Jones, the Birmingham, Alabama native who scored two top five records in four months at the beginning of 1960, died Thursday (August 2) at the age of 75. Jimmy moved to New York as a teenager, hooking up with the Sparks of Rhythm in 1954. They recorded the original version of his composition, “Handy Man”, in 1956. By then Jimmy had left, forming the Savoys and recording under that name and as the Pretenders and the Jones Boys before he struck out on his own in 1959. Partnering with songwriter Otis Blackwell, he re-worked “Handy Man” and recorded it for Cub Records (that’s Otis whistling on the tune). The song made it to #2 and was followed by another Otis production, “Good Timin’,” which got to #3. Inexplicably, the hits then dried up for Jimmy. “That’s When I Cried” only got to #83 and “I Told You So” floundered at #85 in 1961. Moves to the Ro-Jac, Vee-Jay, Roulette, Parkway and Bell labels yielded no more hits, but Jimmy kept on writing and performing. http://www.oldiesmusic.com/news.htm Marvin Hamlisch, Composed 'The Way We Were,' Dies at 68 Published: August 07, 2012 By Brent Lang Composer and conductor Marvin Hamlisch, best known for the torch song "The Way We Were," died Monday. He was 68 years old. Hamlisch collapsed after a brief illness, his family announced. In a career that spanned over four decades, Hamlisch won virtually every major award: three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony, and three Golden Globes. Len PrinceHamlisch composed more than forty motion picture scores, including his Oscar-winning score and song for “The Way We Were,” and his adaptation of Scott Joplin’s ragtime music for “The Sting,” for which he received a third Oscar. Hamlisch's musical scores, though intricately conceived, never drew attention to themselves. They served to compliment the on-screen action, not overwhelm it -- enhancing each gesture, each glance, each moment of drama. That subtle approach allowed him to be something of a musical chameleon, easily gliding from searing dramas to off-beat comedies and making him a close collaborator to a diverse group of directors such as Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh and Alan J. Pakula. Perhaps his deepest artistic collaboration remained with Barbra Streisand, for whom he not only penned one of her signature love anthems in "The Way We Were," but also wrote the score for her 1996 film "The Mirror has Two Faces." He would also serve as musical director and and arranger of Streisand’s 1994 concert tour, and the television special, "Barbra Streisand: The Concert", for which he won two Emmys. In a 2010 interview with Broadway World, Hamlisch said he drew on the lovelorn masterpiece "My Funny Valentine to write the theme song to "The Way We Were," because he wanted to capture the highs and lows of romance. "It was all almost like a very yin-yang sort of movie," Hamlisch said. "I wanted to write something that was uplifting and positive, on the other hand, there is a tremendous amount of bitter-sweetness to that film - and bittersweet romance - so, it's a real duality. And that's why I think the song - though it's in the major mode - is quite sad." Hamlisch's deft touch can be felt in the scores for such films as “Sophie’s Choice,” “Ordinary People,” “Three Men and a Baby,” “Ice Castles,” “Take the Money and Run,” Bananas,” “Save the Tiger,” “The Informant!,” and his latest effort, “Behind the Candelabra,” an upcoming HBO film about the life of Liberace. On Broadway, Hamlisch's output was more mixed, but he did have a smash hit with “A Chorus Line,” which received the Pulitzer Prize. Other works such as “The Goodbye Girl” and “Sweet Smell of Success," garnered some critical praise, but were never fully embraced by audiences. Something of a musical prodigy, Hamlisch was the youngest student to be admitted by the prestigious Julliard School of Music. As an up-and-coming musician, Hamlisch was hired by "Lawrence of Arabia," producer Sam Spiegel to play piano at his parties, which in turn led to his first film job scoring the 1968 film "The Swimmer," an adaptation of John Cheever's short story. http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/marvin-hamlisch-oscar-winning-composer-dies-68-50971

http://westernboothill.blogspot.com/2012/07/rip-rg-armstrong.html?m=1 http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/08/01/13060511-gore-vidal-celebrated-author-playwright-dies?lite Crooner Tony Martin, whose career spanned from the Great Depression to the 21st century, has died in Los Angeles at 98. Friend and accountant Beverly Scott says Martin died Friday of natural causes at his West Los Angeles home. A romantic idol for at least one generation, his hit recordings include "I Get Ideas," "To Each His Own," "Begin the Beguine" and "There's No Tomorrow." Although he never became a full-fledged movie star, Martin was featured in 25 films, most of them made during the heyday of the Hollywood musicals. A husky 6 feet tall and dashingly handsome, he was often cast as the lead. Off-screen, he married two movie musical superstars, Alice Faye and Cyd Charisse. The latter union lasted 60 years, until Charisse's death in 2008. http://www.wtop.com/541/2969626/Romantic-crooner-Tony-Martin-dies-at-98 Amazingly busy through five decades, he was the voice of Aquaman and appeared in "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," "Kansas City Bomber," "Back to the Future" and "Ed Wood." Norman Alden, a character actor who piled up a prodigious number of credits during his five decades in film and television, died July 27 of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Los Angeles, his family reported. He was 87. Alden appeared in several hundred television episodes, commercials and films (his family put the number at 2,500) but rarely had a regular gig, frequently playing tough guys and authority figures one show and one character at a time. Perhaps his most recognizable role was as Lou the mechanic in a series of AC Delco commercials. Alden provided the voice of Aquaman in two Super Friends animated series in the 1970s, played outlaw Johnny Ringo in 1961 in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp opposite Hugh O'Brian and was Coach Leroy Fedders on seven episodes of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman in the mid-1970s. His character drowned face-first in a bowl of Mary's (Louise Lasser's) chicken soup. The native of Fort Worth, Texas, got his start on The Bob Cummings Show in 1957 and would appear in scores of TV series like Honey West, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Fay, My Three Sons, My Favorite Martian, The Big Valley, The Streets of San Francisco, The Rookies, Adam-12, Combat!, Charlie's Angels, JAG and Batman, where he played one of the Joker's henchmen. On film, Alden voiced Sir Kay in Disney's The Sword in the Stone (1963), was roller derby skater "Horrible" Hank Hopkins in Raquel Welch's Kansas City Bomber (1972) and had roles in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), Semi-Tough (1977), Back to the Future (1985), They Live (1988), Ed Wood (1994), Patch Adams (1998) and K-Pax (2001). Following a tour of duty in Europe during World War II, Alden attended Texas Christian University and worked at KXOL Radio as a disc jockey. He left Fort Worth in his early twenties to go to New York, won Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts and moved to Los Angeles. Survivors include his children Brent and Ashley, his grandson Zooey and his longtime life partner, Linda Thieben. A celebration of his life will be held in Los Angeles in August and in Fort Worth in September. The family asks that in a donation in Alden's name be made to TCU's drama department; to the department of cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; or to the Frostig Center in Pasadena. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/norman-alden-dies-mary-hartman-back-to-the-future-ed-wood-355726

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Actor-stuntman Tony Epper dies at 73 Part of Epper dynasty of Hollywood stuntmen By Variety Staff Tony Epper, an actor, stuntman and stunt coordinator, died July 20 at home in Idaho after a long fighter with cancer. He was 73. His film credits as an actor include Sydney Pollack's "The Scalphunters," "Valdez Is Coming," Mark Rydell's "The Cowboys," "Cutter's Way," "The Beastmaster," "The Hitcher," "Christmas Vacation" and Warren Beatty's "Dick Tracy." Epper did stunt work on a large number of high-profile films including "Lethal Weapon 2," "Thelma and Louise," "Patriot Games," Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula," "The River Wild," "Waterworld," "Money Train," "Jingle All the Way," "Volcano" and "Con Air." Epper also worked steadily in television, first appearing in an episode of "Bachelor Father" in 1958 and racking up guest roles in series including "I Spy," "The Green Hornet," "Daniel Boone," "Batman," "Gunsmoke," "Kung Fu," "The Six Million Dollar Man," "The Rockford Files," "Charlie's Angels," "The A-Team" and "MacGyver." He last appeared in 1996 in an episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" as a drunken Klingon. John Anthony Epper was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor-stuntman John Epper. He did his first Hollywood work as an actor and stuntman in the early 1950s, appearing uncredited in the films "Carbine Williams," "The Story of Will Rogers" and "Ma and Pa Kettle at Home." He was credited as second unit director on the Abel Ferrara-helmed 1986 telepic "The Gladiator." Epper's brothers Andy and Gary were also actor-stuntmen but preceded him in death. Epper is survived by his wife, Donna; two sons, Danny, an actor and stuntman, and Roger; a daughter; two step-daughters and a variety of other Epper family members who work in the business, including his sister Jeannie Epper. Reuters) - Maeve Binchy, one of Ireland's most beloved writers, has died in Dublin after a short illness at the age of 72, Irish media reported on Tuesday. Binchy was revered for such novels as "Light a Penny Candle," "Tara Road," and "Circle of Friends," which was adapted for the screen in 1995. She sold more than 40 million books worldwide. Her novels and short stories often examined the friction between tradition and modernity in Ireland. Her works have been translated into 37 languages. Born in the Dublin suburb of Dalkey in 1940, she began her career as a teacher before moving into a distinguished career as a newspaper journalist and writer. She then moved to London, where she became the London editor of The Irish Times newspaper. Her first novel, "Light a Penny Candle," was published in 1982 and became a bestseller. She later published dozens of novels, novellas and collections of short stories, including "The Copper Beech," "Silver Wedding," "Evening Class," and "Heart and Soul." She announced her retirement in 2000, but continued writing. Her last novel, "Minding Frankie," was published in 2010. Binchy lived in Dalkey until her death, not far from where she grew up. She is survived by her husband, the writer Gordon Snell. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/31/us-maevebinchy-idUSBRE86U03R20120731 http://www.examiner.com/article/jonathan-hardy-of-farscape-dies-at-71

DOCTOR Who actress Mary Tamm died this morning after a long battle against cancer, her agent said. She was 62. Mary, who played the Doctor's companion Romana alongside Tom Baker, died at hospital in London. Her agent Barry Langford said she had a "zest for life." The actress was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, the daughter of Estonian refugees, and had a long career on stage and screen. As well as Doctor Who, she starred in films The Odessa File and The Likely Lads and had recurring roles in soaps Brookside and EastEnders. http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/passtheremote/2012/07/doctor-who-actress-dies.html Jan 24, 1931 - July 23, 2012 OKLAHOMA CITY Edward Lee Nichols was born in Hollywood, CA January 24, 1931. He attended Hollywood High School and the Little Red School House. He was the son of Carl Nelson and Henrietta Louise Booth Nichols. During the depression, Ed and his six siblings were child actors. Ed worked for G.M. and owned a carpet retail store. Ed was preceded in death by Delores June Smith; and son, Douglas Edward Nichols. He is survived by his wife, Amanda Hilton Nichols; daughter, Diane Lea Ayers & husband; grandchildren, Curtis Ayers and Nicole Maingi; great-grandchild, Adelynn Maingi; and stepchildren, Douglas Hilton Low and Amanda Montgomery. Memorial services will be held at the Sportsman's Club, 4001 N.W. 39 St., OKC, Thursday, July 26 at 1 p.m. Published in The Oklahoman on July 25, 2012 http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/oklahoman/obituary.aspx?n=EDWARD-NICHOLS&pid=158736789#fbLoggedOut http://www.examiner.com/article/actress-lupe-ontiveros-passed-away-los-angeles

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118057004 Posted: Thu., Jul. 26, 2012, 1:06pm PT Stuntman Conrade Gamble dies at 45 Appeared in 'Green Hornet,' 'Amazing Spider-Man' By Variety Staff Conrade Gamble, a stuntman and occasional actor with recent credits in films including "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," "The Green Hornet" and "The Amazing Spider-Man" and TV series including "CSI," died of natural causes on July 12 in Los Angeles. He was 45. Gamble worked steadily as a stuntman in Hollywood since 2000, appearing on TV in series including "Crossing Jordan," "The Shield," "Fastlane," "Alias" and "Lincoln Heights" and in movies including "Soul Plane," "Spider-Man 2," "XXX: State of the Union," "Hostage," "Rent," "Evan Almighty" and "Meet the Spartans."He was a stunt double for Ving Rhames on at least five projects, including "Mission: Impossible III," a stunt double for Bernie Mac on "Guess Who" and an occasional stunt coordinator. As an actor Gamble appeared on TV on series including "Alias," "The Guardian," "The Closer" and "CSI" and in films including 2010's "Takers." He also served as a technical advisor for the CBS series "NCIS." Born in Chicago, Gamble attended Howard U. and received a B.S. in business administration from the U. of Phoenix. He served in the Marine Corps Reserves as a sergeant in the Gulf War. He is survived by his mother and father, a sister and two daughters. The star of the 1970s TV series “Medical Center” who went on to appear in such films and shows as “Mulholland Drive” and “Melrose Place” has died. Chad Everett was 75. Everett’s daughter says he died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles after a year-and-a-half-long battle with lung cancer. His acting career spanned more than 40 years and included guest starring roles on such TV series as “The Love Boat,” ‘’Murder, She Wrote” and “Without A Trace.” He most recently appeared in the TV series “Castle.” His films credits include “The Jigsaw Murders,” ‘’The Firechasers” and director Gus Van Sant’s “Psycho.” Everett is survived by his two daughters and six grandchildren. He was married to actress Shelby Grant for 45 years until her death last year. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/chad-everett-actor-who-appeared-on-medical-center-and-mulholland-drive-dies-at-75/2012/07/24/gJQAnXth7W_story.html

SAG-AFTRA Mourns the Passing of Fern Persons July 23, 2012 SAG-AFTRA mourns the passing of former SAG National Board member Fern Persons, who died Sunday in Denver. Persons would have been 102 on July 27. A working actress all of her life, Persons joined AFTRA on Dec. 5, 1937, and was the fifth member of the SAG Chicago Branch when she joined on August 31, 1953. She was elected to the Chicago Branch Council in 1962 and served for 44 years until 2006, when she stepped down only because she could no longer drive. She also served more than 30 years on the AFTRA Chicago Local Board. Persons was elected to the SAG National Board in 1976, and served on that body until 1998. During that time, from 1977-81, she was elected SAG 5th national vice president. She served as a SAG Regional Branch Division representative on TV/Theatrical and Commercials negotiating committees throughout the 1980s and intermittently through the 1990s. Finally, as co-chair of the Chicago AFTRA/SAG Seniors Committee from 1984 to 2003, Persons spearheaded many projects designed to increase employment opportunities for senior members. She was the force behind the creation of the AFTRA/SAG Senior Radio Players in 1996, which continues to this day in Chicago as the SAG-AFTRA Senior Radio Players. Because of Persons’ decades of union leadership and contributions to the lives of Chicago actors and broadcasters, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley declared July 27, 1999 Fern Persons Day. Person's was honored in 2006 with the AFTRA Founders Award and, in 2009, she was awarded SAG's prestigious Howard Keel Award. This past May, Persons donated $100,000 to Chicago's Kaufherr Members Resource Center endowment fund. In appreciation, the KMRC video suite was renamed The Fern Persons Video Suite. http://www.sagaftra.org/news/sag-aftra-mourns-passing-fern-persons R.I.P. ... http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm?SourceCode=20120723czb&_t=Former+astronaut+Sally+Ride+succumbs+to+cancer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride Details are sketchy, but Larry Hoppen, co-founder, drummer, guitarist and singer with Orleans, passed away Tuesday (July 24) at his home in Central Florida. A Bayshore, Long island native, Larry was living in Ithica, New York (attending Ithica College) when he dropped out to play in a band called Boffalongo with future Orleans pianist Wells Kelly. Larry was asked by John Hall to move to Woodstock, New York and form Orleans, which eventually included Wells, Jerry Marotta and Larry’s brother, Lance. After much struggle finding a record label (eventually Asylum) and getting their records heard, the group broke through with the #55 tune “Let There Be Music,” from their third album, in 1975. It was followed by two smash hits, “Dance With Me” (#6-1975) and “Still The One” (#5-1976). John and Jerry left the group in 1977 and the Hoppen brothers continued on, signing with Infinity Records and recording one last big hit— “Love Takes Time” (#11-1979). When Infinity, and later Radio Records, went bankrupt in the early ‘80s, Orleans continued to tour, but with no more hit singles. Though still involved in Orleans’ projects, Larry performed with the “Voices of Classic Rock” tour beginning in 1997. (OldiesMusic.Com)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wayne Massarelli dies at 62 Makeup artist worked with Fawcett, Bacall, Bergen By Variety Staff Hollywood makeup artist Wayne Massarelli, who worked with Farrah Fawcett, Lauren Bacall, Ann-Margret, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Sally Fields, Dyan Cannon and Joan Rivers, died of complications from liver cancer in Pasadena, Calif., on July 13. He was 62. Bacall, Cannon and Ann-Margret had repeatedly relied on Massarelli in their film and TV work over the past two decades. Massarelli's film credits include "The Muppets Take Manhattan," "Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde," "My Fellow Americans," "These Old Broads" and "The Santa Clause 3." His smallscreen credits include the series "Grace Under Fire," "Karen Sisco" and "Hawthorne" as well as telepics including "Christmas in Connecticut," "Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rives Story" and "Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke." Massarelli began his career in 1969 working at Lintermans Salon in Beverly Hills. His clients included Fawcett, who requested that he do her makeup for her editorial and cosmetic ad campaigns. Massarelli moved into freelance print work, then television and motion pictures, Wayne Armand Massarelli grew up in Boston. He is survived by his mother, a sister, and his partner of 35 years, John W. Miller. Donations may be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund, Human Rights Campaign or the Millan Foundation. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118056874 SERRAO FRANK ANTHONY Beloved son, brother and friend, passed away on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at age 60. The first son of John E. and Mary (Laurino) Serrao, born on Valentine's Day, the same day as his father. Brother to Laura, John "Porky", Joseph and Linda; and uncle to Cassie and Danielle Serrao and John Michael Beakley of Texas. A Fox Chapel alumni and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. Frank especially enjoyed working on a number of film projects in the area. He is most widely known as "The Gray Suit Zombie" from the original Dawn of the Dead film while his photo clip appeared on the Times Square Billboard. An actor on stage and film, educator in prisons and schools, and frustrated sports fan, Frank had many unique experiences to add to his credits. He will be faithfully remembered. A memorial gathering for family and friends will be held Sunday, July 22 at 3 p.m. at his family home in O'Hara Twp. The family respectfully suggests donations be made to the Cooper-Siegel Community Library, 403 Fox Chapel Rd., Pittsburgh, PA 15238. Funeral arrangements were thoughtfully handled by the WEDDELL-AJAK FUNERAL HOME, Aspinwall. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/postgazette/obituary.aspx?n=FRANK-SERRAO&pid=158641888#fbLoggedOut -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From Mark Evanier's blog... Dave Thorne, R.I.P. Published Sunday, July 22, 2012 at 12:16 PM. Sad to hear of the passing of Dave Thorne, a fine cartoonist and a fine person. Dave was passionate about two things in life. One was drawing silly pictures and he did it well and loved to share his talents with others. He would draw a picture for anyone at any time and/or dispense a cartooning lesson. His work was filled with joy and humor and you could just look at the drawings and sense they were created by someone you'd like. His other passion was Hawaii...or as he usually called it, "Paradise." The Hawaii Tourist Bureau should have had this guy on retainer. He thought it was the greatest place on Earth and was on a one-man mission to get everyone on the planet to move there and love it as much as he did. He was always sure they would. Scott Shaw! (who just called me with the sad news) remarked that if Dave had pressed his talents in some major city in the continental U.S., he could well have been a successful mainstream cartoonist. Instead, he chose to live in Hawaii where he got involved in using cartoons to educate and inspire. He may hold the world record for the most "chalk talks" given and the most young people inspired to pick up a pen and learn to draw. In that venue and context, he had a wildly successful career and Scott and I concur that given the choice, he would have preferred that to any other option. He had recently had a series of strokes and last night, he had one so massive that the decision was made to remove him from life support. I believe he was 82 though the last time I saw him — maybe ten years ago at a Comic-Con in San Diego — he looked barely fifty. He bragged about his age, attributing his (then) good health to living in Paradise. I think loving his work as much as he did probably had something to do with it, too. www.tmz.com Sherman Hemsley, the actor who made the character George Jefferson famous in "The Jeffersons," has died, El Paso cops tell TMZ. Hemsley died at his home in El Paso, Texas. Hemsley, who was 74, became famous during his appearances on "All in the Family." The spin-off, "The Jeffersons" was a monster hit. He also starred in the TV show, "Amen." He was also a professional singer and even released the single in 1989, "Ain't that A Kick in the Head." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]